Amadeus

For the second week in a row, I went to movie screening. And I am very glad I did. It was good that I went to it just the day after we discussed movie making so I could look for some of the things we discussed. First of all, I loved this movie. I saw it 20+ years ago when it came out, but just as a video rental, not on a big screen. This movie does better on a big screen. It was fun to identify some of the things we talked about in class. They used cross cuts a lot, showing that two things were happening at the same time in different locations. The close up shots were very effective as well.

One scene that got my attention was when Mozart's father comes to visit him in Vienna the first time after he has gotten married. They could have just had his father come to the door and knock on it, but instead Mozart is outside just coming home, and sees his father up the on the stairs, so there is a low angle shot looking up at his father, and a high angle shot of his father looking down at him. He looks small and weak in this way. This shows that his father is dominant, and even though Mozart is a grown man, his father still has some kind of control over him.

All of those things together (and many more) combine to tell a great story, and many lessons can be learned from it. What struck me is how Solieri's jealously consumed him and eventually destroyed him. Seeking to destroy someone else seems to only destroy oneself. Rather than appreciating the talents he had been given (he composed operas for heavens sake!), and appreciating and enjoying the talents of others (Mozart), he only wished for what he did not have and tried to destroy the one who had it. At the end of the movie, Solieri utters a line that jumped out at me - he said, "I am the patron saint of mediocrity." This caused me to question at what point do we accept "mediocrity" and be satisfied, and at what point to we strive to be more? If he would have accepted his mediocrity, his life would have been happier and more fulfilled. But at what point do we accept our mediocrity, and at what point do we try to move beyond it, push past it, and try for greatness? I would suggest that Solieri's mediocrity came not from ceasing to pursue greatness, but from comparing himself to someone else's greatness. It seems when we do that, we always loose.

Class Discussion on Movies

I never knew much of anything about movies before our class discussions. I go, I know if I like it or not, and then I leave. I didn't know that there are certain types of shots and cuts, etc., and how that can have an impact on the way you view the movie and what you think about it. I almost feel manipulated in a way! But it is a good manipulation for the most part, because it helps you to get into the story, to know what is coming next, and to move the story along. I think it interesting how film making evolves. In the movie screening I went to last week, Bang the Drum Slowly, it seemed quite slow moving, and I think it was because there were fewer cuts from one scene to another. The camera showed one scene for a longer time. Before learning about scenes and different types of cuts, I could tell that it moved slower, but I wouldn't know why. So that is kind of cool.

Video Reading

After reading the article about video art, I couldn't picture what they were talking about. I found that my imagination couldn't wrap itself around what it would be like, or how it would be worthy of a gallery exhibition. In the article it says that, "video art stands as a potentiality of artistic expression's major roles in human communication: to give access to other ways of conceptualization." I guess I just wasn't conceptualizing in other ways. So, I went to the web site of the artist mentioned in the article, Nam June Paik to see what this was. It was really interesting - in some pieces there were many TV screens, each with images, that combined into one big image. Other pieces were TV screens with images put together to form TV people. Very creative, and an interesting truly different and new medium than art of the past. It could only be modern. Check out this web page for a different kind of art. http://www.paikstudios.com/gallery/gallery_index.html

Your Brain on Music

This week listening to Your Brain on Music, he said something I though was interesting. He said something to the effect that the connections in your brain that music makes, or that connects to music are formed when you are young. This caused me to think about parents and children and music. It seems like every generation has music parents don't like that children want to listen to. I remember my parents giving me "grief" about some of the music I listened to as a teenager, and how I thought I would never give my kids grief about their music. I was going to be a mom that kept listening to modern music, so I would like the same kind of music my teenagers liked. It just did not happen.

Part of the reason might be that the words and content of some of the music my son wanted to listen to was just not appropriate. But maybe it's more than that. It's not that I don't like modern pop music, there's a lot I do like. However, I find that when I am in a position to just listen to whatever I want, like in the car by myself, I always go back to the music I listened to long ago. That was the music that really seemed to speak to me in some way, the music that you hear a song and you go "Oh, I love that song!" The same when I purchase something, I go back to the 1970s. I think the only music I have purchased that's newer than the 70s is Christmas music. Maybe it's because those passageways in my brain formed those connections, and then they stopped. You guys are mostly too young to have experienced that, but see if it holds true as you get older.

Bang the Drum Slowly

This was the title of the movie I saw at a movie screening at the Orem Library last night. The Library is showing baseball themed movies this summer, and indeed this was a baseball movie, sort of. It was released in 1973, and so it was kind of fun to see the fashion of my junior high days. It seemed a little slow moving, maybe methodical is a better word for it. I wonder if they would make it the same way now - probably not. It was apparently a big box office hit and critically acclaimed. Don't get me wrong, in many ways, it was a great movie.

There were two themes that really stuck out to me. The first was true friendship. This is a story of two baseball players, one the star pitcher of the New York Yankees, Arthur or Henry, the other a less than brilliant catcher, Bruce. The very first of the movie, the catcher is diagnosed with an incurable disease. The pitcher is a true friend, and determines to make this season a good one for his buddy. He tells no one, and even insists, when he hears Bruce might be traded, that a clause be added to his contract that he goes wherever Bruce goes. He protects him from a devious girl-friend, and tries to keep the manager from finding out that Bruce is ill. The other guys on the team don't treat him very well, and are always on him for something, the way he dresses, his hair, his hobbies, whatever. Arthur sees this, and quietly tells one person on the team that Bruce is dying. As might be expected, one by one the entire team finds out.

That is the other theme I find interesting. When the guys on the team find out, the start treating Bruce better. Not only does this help Bruce, it helps the entire team. They start out the season pretty well, but kind of slump in the middle. They have the potential to get to the World Series, but don't really play together. Bruce's illness kind of gives them something to rally around. Although, no one ever lets on to Bruce that they know. Things just change. They play better, they get along better, they win more often. And Bruce has his best season ever.

This brought to mind my last year's seminary class. Right at the end of the year, April 28th to be exact, one of my students was killed in an accident. She was hit by a train when walking on train tracks near a beach in Ventura. She was a smart, beautiful young woman with tons of potential. She was just six weeks shy of graduation. She was out class vice president. Our class was one that had known each other for years, they all grew up together. So they were friends, but there were divisions, especially where the girls were concerned. These two didn't like these two and were mean to them, etc. After Amanda's death, they all came together. They cried together, they clung to each other and to their faith. And they came to discover what did and didn't matter. One girl seemed to take Amanda's death particularly hard. At our final testimony meeting of the year, she shared what she had learned from this experience. She said that she learned that what is important is our relationships with other people and how we treat them. Because you just never know.

Why is it takes a tragedy for us to treat others with the kindness and respect? The movie was another great example of this. When his teammates found out Bruce was dying, suddenly they saw him differently. They accepted him and helped make his last days on earth happy.

I loved the final line of the movie. Arthur attends Bruce's funeral, and as he stands looking at his grave, he says, "From here on in, I rag nobody." Good advice for us all.

Theatre of the Absurd

Absurdism theatre includes plays from the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s as well as other works that evolved from these works. There are several characteristics of these types of plays, comedy mixed with horrific or tragic images, characters caught in hopeless situations and/or forced to do repetitive or meaningless things, dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the concept of the "well-made play" (from Wikipedia). The absurd theatre movement originated in Paris (big shock). Many of the playwrites were French, Jean Genet, Jean Tardieu, Boris Vian. Others were born somewhere else, but lived in France and wrote in French, such as Samuel Beckett and Arthur Adamov. The basic philosophy of these playwrights is giving artistic articulation to Albert Camus' philosophy that life is inherently without meaning.

These plays/productions to me seem to be very depressing. Apparently, they portray problems, human weakness, all the bad things life can bring, with no solutions. Life is simply hopeless and meaningless, and people are just basically rotten. One of the plays of this period is "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" This play won many awards in 1963, including the Tony Award for Best Play. The story is about two couples who get drunk in the home of one couple and "engage in relentless, scathing verbal and sometimes physical abuse" (Wikipedia), toward each other and sometimes the other couple. According to Edward Albee, the playwrite, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf means who's afraid of the big bad wolf . . . who's afraid of living life without false illusions. So, let's not try to be any better than the base, natural man that everyone has inside, and just give up. Because trying to be any better is a "false illusion."

The Getty!

I just got back from a visit to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It was fabulous! I am a little ashamed to say that I have lived here for 20 years, and watched the Getty being built, but have never been. What an amazing way to spend an afternoon. And the best part, the Getty is FREE. You have to pay 15$ to park, but then you have to spend $15 to park anywhere in LA. If you ever come to Southern California to do the beach thing, and Disney land, spend an afternoon at the Getty.


I'm glad I came after studying architecture and also painting. I appreciated it so much more and enjoyed the experience so much more than I would have. The Getty is build on 700 acres on a hill overlooking much of the Los Angeles area. The architect is Richard Meyer, and after studying architecture, it was easy to see what his style was - very modernist. The tour guide asked us to observe and tell him what Meyer's favorite color was, what his favorite shape was, and what his favorite building material was. His favorite color was white, his favorite shape is the square, and his favorite building materials are metal and glass. Luckily, the Getty committee who hired him insisted that he use stone too, or it would have all been white squares of metal and glass squares for the buildings. The travertine marble used was really beautiful and helped the building blend in with the surrounding hills. Even the gardens it seemed were planned by sculptors rather than by landscape architects. All of the sycamore trees used on the property have half of their leaves carefully removed to allow just the right amount of filtered sun through.


But enough about the buildings and grounds. There was amazing stuff inside the buildings too. They had an exhibit of Illustrated Manuscripts from 1300 and 1400s that were pretty incredible. The detail and depth of the illustrations were amazing, and some of them were very small, as in a prayer book about the size of our smallest scriptures. It is remarkable that these books and illustrations are 600 -700 years old! Some of the detail was so tiny and the lines were so fine, I can't imaging what they would have used to create such detail.


They also had an exhibit of Italian religious paintings. One of my favorite was a picture of Christ. I am used to LDS artists depictions of Christ, particularly close-ups of his face. This one is different, but hauntingly powerful. There is such expression, pain and sorrow, yet there is love. It is a small painting, but one that really touched me. This painting is by Correggio about 1525, Counter-Reformation era.

I also got to see an original Van Gogh. That was one of the highlights of this trip. The painting is Irises. This was done while he was in the asylum for his mental illness. This seems to me to show a lighter, possibly happy side of Van Gogh. Perhaps he was feeling hopeful, maybe his treatment was going well. The colors are vibrant and clear and high key. I think the one white iris is interesting. No two flowers are the same, in the painting or in nature. But the white one is more different than the others. I wonder if Van Gogh felt like he was more different than other people. The white iris in this painting stands out in a positive way. It is strong and tall, and adds beauty and contrast to the other flowers, much the same way Van Gogh's paintings are more different and distinctive than other painters, and adds so much to the art world, and to all the world.

This is so long, but I have only scratched the surface of what I was able to experience today. I saw Monet, Degas, Titian, Domier, Courbet and so many more artist's paintings that I have not heard of. This experience was definitely a 10. We should all go!

Class Discussion - Dance!

I have enjoyed the discussions on dance this week in class. My sister teaches ballet professionally, but I feel like I am kind of out of touch with dance, ballet especially. Something in class, I can't remember what exactly, made me think about the human body, and how it is created in the image of God. Is it any wonder, then, that people are able to do so many incredibly wonderful things with their bodies? Our bodies are part of the divine, so striving for great beauty and expression of self through our bodies makes sense to me. The great leaps and turns of ballet, defying gravity, expressing emotion and imitating natures flow as in modern dance, are just a taste of what will be possible when our bodies are perfect, in addition to being divine. I think that is, in part, what makes people discipline their bodies, and strive for perfection through dance.

Reading on Dance

I enjoyed particularly Isadora Duncan's "Movement is Life" in Monday's reading. She said, "I notice that a baby of three or four coming to my school is responsive to the exaltation of beautiful music, whereas a child of eight or nine is already under the influence of a conventional and mechanical movement. . ." she talked about how a child will loose that spontaneity they have as young children, because we educate it out of them. This brought to mind my little granddaughters, and their love of dancing with any type of music that is on, from singing and dancing with Wii's Rock Band, or dancing to the Tabernacle Choir. Soon they will learn that you don't dance to the Tabernacle Choir, and that choir music isn't "cool" to listen to. Do cultural "norms" enhance life today, or do they hinder it? I have to admit that if I saw someone of grownup age dancing to the Tabernacle Choir I would think it a bit odd. People randomly dancing by themselves in public I would probably put on that list as well. But what if there were no "norms," what if dancing by yourself in public was accepted as totally fine? Would society be weird? Who's to decide what weird is anyway?

Friday Afternoon Cello Recital

I attended Natachia Yung-Chiang Li's cello recital this afternoon. This week had been intense and I felt like I had been writing papers all week. To attend this recital on a roasting Friday afternoon in a cool auditorium was refreshing to the body and spirit.

There were a couple of things I really enjoyed which had nothing to do with the music. The first was that we began with a prayer. What better way to prepare to enjoy beautiful music than to invite the Spirit to be there. The second was the cartoon and Sudoku puzzle on the back of the program. I think it showed the musician's personality and appreciation for the audience to include that. While waiting for the performance to begin, and during the breaks, the audience had another type of entertainment.

The performance itself was wonderful. You know when you attend a performance of some kind and you are kind of anxious for the performers, maybe they make a small mistake or two, or seem kind of nervous, and you really feel for them? This was not like that at all. Last week at the ballet performance, I felt that for the performers there. It makes it a little harder to enjoy the performance, when you are worried for them. This was very professional and so enjoyable. Natachia and her accompanist were very accomplished musicians. I was able to totally relax and just enjoy the music. There is something about classical music, and music without words in general that allows you to completely interpret the music in your own personal way. Natachia's music invoked a multitude of emotions. Some pieces felt like a carefree summer afternoon at the park. One piece felt like climbing a mountain, with some difficult passages and ultimately the reward of the beauty of the view. One piece was quite varied with different sounds, different tempos, and different cords. This piece made me think of my daughter with two small children, and how hectic and sometimes chaotic life can be, but ultimately it is marvelously beautiful.

I came away totally refreshed from a week of writing.

Van Eyck painting

In looking at some of the paintings by Van Eyck and Durer, I was so impressed with Van Eyck and the amount of detail in his paintings. One painting that was very interesting is called "The Fountain of Grace and Triumph of the Church over the Synagogue." At first glance the painting has a lot of vertical lines, drawing the eye upward. It is also very symmetrical, and the triangle shape is very apparent. The painting has three levels, and the top two levels have a serene feeling. There is the Pope (I assume) on top with a lamb at his feet, possibly suggesting that he is the representative of the Lamb of God. He is flanked on either side by saints reading the scriptures. The second level is also serene, with people playing different musical instruments.

The bottom level is a little different. The left side also has vertical lines. but the right-hand corner is different. There are diagonal lines there. I zoomed in, and found that the right corner depicted the Jews. They are carrying scrolls of scriptures and the man in front is blindfolded and wearing the breastplate. They are distressed, falling down, and seem to be driven out. The people on the other side are kneeling and looking smug, like "we're right, and you're wrong." Hence the title of the painting, the Triumph of the Church over the Synagogue.

Then down the middle is a river of water flowing into the fountain in the middle of the bottom. The water is filled with coins it appears, signifying grace I suppose. One of the people on the left is pointing at the fountain as if to say, "see, we have the grace of God with us, you don't." I really enjoyed this painting, and discovering all there was to see in it. The level of detail is amazing!

Class thoughs

Ok, so this week class was a little frustrating for me. Going through so many time periods and trying to remember when they all were and what they all are was confusing. Then I had to try to make sense of why we have to remember it all! Can't we just look at art, learn to evaluate art, and appreciate it for what we find interesting, beautiful, and edifying?

Then I read Jasie's paper on Dadaism, and I kind of got it. Knowing when art was created, and what was happening in the world at the time will help me understand, evaluate and appreciate art. I was not excited about the Dadaist painting we saw in class (the one with the war veterans playing cards), although learning something about the time period and the motivation behind them gave them meaning and life far beyond the initial reaction. It is still somewhat grotesque to me, and I don't find them edifying and uplifting. But, that being said, they have an important message that is expressed thoughtfully and carefully.

A night at the Ballet

I attended the Ballet Under the Stars at Murray Park last night. It was a good performance, not quite professional quality, but very good. A couple of the dancers had some bobbles and nearly fell, but recovered nicely. It was a perfect evening for an outdoor performance! The temperature was perfect, there was no wind, and it was a beautiful setting. I took a jacket, but didn't need it. I liked the venue. It was intimate, there were no bad seats and their sound system is great.

I am not a big ballet fan, my experience with ballet is limited to The Nutcracker. It is beautiful, and I really appreciate how difficult ballet is, and how physically challenging it is. But some of the pieces seemed just really, really slow. One piece though, really stood out to me. It was one of the first ones performed from Carmen. The dancers were really excellent, and there were no bobbles that I could tell. There were just two dancers, and they told a story. I don't know the ballet Carmen, but I could use my imagination. At first the girl was flirtatious, they she reeled him in. He passionately loved her, and some of the scenes were very intimate. Then she leaves him in the end, and you could just feel his pain! All this portrayed throught dance. I think that was surprising to me, that I actually got what they were trying to portray. And if it wasn't exactly it, I thought it was Ok that I got that out of it. I guess that is the nice thing about art, you can make it your own by your own interpretatation.

All in all a lovely way to spend the evening. Worth the eight bucks!

Class discussion on color

I really appreciated the class discussion on color the other day. Especially with respect to the Van Gogh painting of the pool hall. I don't particularly care for that painting, although until class I couldn't tell you why, just like I couldn't tell you why I did like the Starry Night painting. I am beginning to understand justs a little what my reasons might be. The fact that the color value is low key gives the painting a certain feel. The intensity of the colors I think is also a factor. The colors are not bright, but rather dull. It feels almost depressing, and I think that is why I don't care for it.


On the other hand I really love Starry Night. Perhaps the colors are one reason why. Even though the colors are somewhat on the dark side, they are intense and bright, in contrast to the pool room painting. It gives the painting a completely different feeling, not depressing, but maybe mystical, magical. I'll figure this out yet!

Bauhaus Reading

I really enjoyed this book, even though I got a little lost at times with some of the terminology and trying to follow who all the people were. I found myself with an Ah-Hah moment, when I realized why the majority of the buildings we see today in our country and particularly in the cities are big boxes of glass, steel and concrete. It isn't something I had really thought about before, it just was what it was. But as I read the book, I began thinking about all of the beautiful buildings I had seen and experienced in Europe, and even Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia, not to mention the White House and other building built when this country was new. They weren't boxes, they weren't boring, they weren't all nearly identical. When did it change and why did it change? This book was the answer.


What a dramatic and sweeping effect this movement had on American architecture and design! The majority of the buildings I have seen built in my time have had at least elements if not being completely faithful to the box design. Schools, office buildings, stores and shopping malls, hotels, etc. My grandmother's house even had a flat roof and lots of glass. The picture is Fashion Place Mall, built about when I was in Jr. High - see what I mean?


Another point I though interesting was that the heads of cities, companies, universities, even countries, were willing to let these architects totally dictate what kind of building they would build, without any input from the them. These aren't men with no backbone, these were successful, educated supposedly smart people who just shut up and "took it like men." What is really interesting is that the common people, the not-so-educated or successful people, were the ones who wouldn't put up with it, and said, in effect, "This is ugly, plain and boring - I'm not living in this."

My final thought on this - I have a friend in California who is a successful architect. Guess what his house is built out of? You guessed it, glass, steel and cement. The impact continues. . .

Hello Dolly

I went to Hello Dolly this week at the Hale Center Theater. I thoroughly enjoyed this production. The singing was fantastic, the dancing was great, the performers were great, and the theater in the round is an out of the ordinary setting. It's amazing what they can do in a limited amount of stage space. There isn't a bad seat in the house wimthis theater. If you haven't experienced this type of theater, you should go if you get the chance. It is a very intimate setting, and you feel almost part of the performance rather than just an observer. Granted, most people in the audience were retirees, but don't let that stop you!

"Hello Dolly" before, but this time I tried to look at it and gain something new or different than just entertainment, although it was very entertaining. A big part of the story for several of the characters is that they are embarking on an adventure. It is an adventure for the two shop boys, an adventure for Dolly, an adventure for the young couple who want to get married, and an adventure for Mr. Vandergelder, although he doesn't know it yet. They are all going to New York from Yonkers for this adventure. I thought about how, at this stage in my life, I don't have a lot of adventures. My life is pretty routine, well except for coming to BYU for the summer, but even that I have done for the past two years, so the adventure is kind of old. I need to continually look for new ways to add "adventure" to life, do new and different things, and include new people in my life.

This week's readings. . .

Vincent van Gogh is intriguing to me. I absolutely love the Starry Night painting! Maybe it's because I loved the song "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McClean back in the 70s, and I knew it was about van Gogh, but was not familiar with the painting. I wish I could be more definitive about why I love this painting - I love the colors for one thing, but it is more than that. I just can't quite put my finger on it. I am going to continue to try to figure it out, however. Reading about him, and seeing some of his paintings, I think he really fulfilled his goal mentioned in the chapter to touch people with his work. I can understand why coach Phelps was so touched by, and even changed, by his work.

From Class

Probably what stands out in my mind from class this week is the painting of Vincent van Gogh, the one that I assume is a self-portrait (the one someone kept hidden and was going to have destroyed after his death). It showed so much emotion, even pain. I felt like I was looking at more than just a painting, it was a glimpse into the soul of a person. I was surprized by the amount of emotion and empathy I felt looking at it. How does someone express so much of themselves through paint and canvas? It seems that would be much more difficult than with the written word, or through music.

Another artist that I found very interesting was Jackson Pollock. I suppose that at some point in time I may have been one of those people who would look at a piece of abstract art like his and make a comment like "a five-year-old could do this." However, really looking at a couple of his paintings in class I realized this was so not true. I really enjoyed his work, and was amazed at how purposeful his paintings were.

Cultural Events Tentative Plan

June 25 - Utah Arts Festival
July 4 - Hale Center theater
July 10 - Ballet Under the Stars
July 16 - ???
July 25 - Getty Museum
July 30 - Salt Lake City Twilight concert
August 6 - Sundance Summer Theater - The Fantastics
August 10 - Muse Music Film Screening

Utah Arts Festival

Yesterday I attended the Utah Arts Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. I went with my daughter and two little granddaughters. I have had a tendency in the past to avoid art festival type events, seeing them as just a place to spend money. (Again, my husband's views have rubbed off on me.) So yesterday I was determined to go with different eyes, look beyond the money and just enjoy and appreciate.

It helped to have my granddaughters there. The first place we visited was the children's area. There was a white-washed wall 3-4 feet tall with lots of containers of paint in the grass for the children to just come and paint on the wall. This was a big hit! Even my granddaughter who is only a little over a year old wanted to paint. She also wanted to eat the paint, but that's part of the fun. I wouldn't say they have great artistic talent, but that's the great thing about being a kid. No one cares if you do or not, you can just paint. There was even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and milk booth for food to feed the kids.

I found myself really enjoying the different artist's booths. There are so many different media from which to create art! One of my favorites was a booth with art they called X-Rayographs, where they took x-rays of different plants and objects and somehow printed that on paper and then tinted them with color. The result was light, ethereal, breathy prints that were very unique.

Another booth I totally enjoyed was an artist that did drawings, pencil I think? One I particularly enjoyed looked like a self-portrait on a 8 1/2 x 11 paper that had been torn into several pieces, and then the artist was reaching out of the paper trying to tape the pieces back together again. I saw myself in this picture, not that I am torn, but that I feel I am constantly trying to put all the pieces that make up me together in better ways, trying to smooth the rough edges and wrinkles.

The weather at the outset was blazing hot, but mercifully after an hour or so clouds arrived bringing some relief. The Maui Wowi Strawberry Banana smoothie also helped. It was a great setting between the Library and the City and County building. In addition to the artist's booths, there were musical performances, film screenings, food, and on and on. I thought since we went on the first day, and it was a Thursday, it wouldn't be too crowded, but there were plenty of people. I can only imagine what it will be like Saturday. It was a little pricey, especially since they don't let people bring in their own food (they check your bags at the gate for food). But going before 3:00 meant it only cost $5 to get in. I also indulged my older granddaughter with a marionette horse and found a unique and lovely birthday gift for my future daughter-in-law. You can just go and enjoy, if you don't go hungry. Overall, a really enjoyable afternoon.

Thoughts on Reading

I enjoyed the reading on education early this week. I though the book made some very valid points about education becoming too specialized, even to the point of removing culture from society. I really liked the quote from Alan Bloom about how substitutes for real diversity are dyed hair and other external differences that tell you nothing about what is on the inside, and how this is happening because students are no longer acquainted with great works of literature.

It seems to me that people in society of all ages no longer have discussions of ideas. They instead pick a side, often just because everyone they know picks that side, and then they have a shouting match telling anyone that will listen that their side is right. Politics in particular is discouraging and increasingly disgusting to me. Politicians and even pundits and commentators no longer discuss ideas and try to come to a consensus or really solve a problem. They simply yell at each other and try to find tiny things to pick at and blow out of proportion.

I can see this as a possible symptom of the culture disappearing from our society; that specialization has convinced people their view is the only correct view and anyone who disagrees with them is just wrong.

Class thoughts

After the first day of class, I began to think that maybe I actually need this class. When we watched the David Byrne video the first day, I was relatively unmoved. It was OK, the music was OK, the performance was OK. Then as we began discussing it, I found that many people got much more out of it than I did. I wondered if maybe I was missing something. I told my husband that night when I talked to him that maybe I had been around him too long. (My husband is an accountant, and the epitome of left-brain, rational, logical, non-emotional thinking, very sophic.)

I am an early-morning seminary teacher, and as I thought about this experience, I realized that maybe I need to look at art, music, theatre, whatever, in the same way I look at the scriptures. I constantly try to teach my students to dig deeper into the scriptures to find more meaning out of what they read. Perhaps I need to apply this to my perception of the arts. I need to go beyond just the surface and dig deeper to fully appreciate the beauty that lies within.

My First Blog

OK, so I have resisted this blogging thing as being for the younger generation, but now, by assigngment, I have joined the throng. First Facebook, now blogging, what's next, Twitter?